Field emission electron sources are an excellent alternative for a myriad of applications such as flat panel displays, microwave tubes and plasma thrusters requiring highly efficient and compact electron sources with a short turn-on time, high power efficiency, and low thermal signature, Although field emission array (FEA) devices with several different triode configurations have been developed, there is still a need for devices with increased robustness, lower gate voltage and lower gate parasitic current that are easy to manufacture. In spite of heavy investment in FEA technology, there is still no FEA based source that has adequate brightness, reliability and long life necessary for the applications for which it was being developed. The fact that the tip emission performance is highly sensitive to gas-tip interactions, coupled to the fact that successful array operation depends on thousands of micro-fabricated tips, each one being capable of causing the entire array to fail, represents an intrinsic lack of robustness and reliability.
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